A TRANSACTION TIMELINE FOR THE BUYER

If you’ve never bought a house before, and even if you have, the process can seem daunting. Here is a brief outline of what you might expect in the course of your purchase transaction

Days Action

CD: Contract Date. Congratulations, you’ve just bought a house!

CD+3 Deposit due in escrow.

CD+7 Seller’s Disclosures are due.

CD+17 Review, sign and submit escrow instructions, disclosures, title documents, receipts for reports. I will go over all of these with you.

CD+14-17 -End of Investigation period, inspection response due. Once we have reviewed all the reports, we can strategize how to best present a Request for Repairs. Once we have reached a credit settlement, you can still get other competitive bids for any work you are electing to do after the close. Bear in mind that while the Seller may consent to give us access to the house after the end of this time, our right to access ends with the end of this inspection period. Any other access would be at the discretion of the listing agent and Seller.

-By the end of this time, you should also have contacted your insurance company to verify the property can be insured and your satisfaction with the available coverage. You do not have to decide on your insurance provider right away, but it’s a good idea to have it in place at least a week before closing.

-We will also review the Title Report during this time.

-If the Seller is anxious for a response from us, they may submit a Notice to Perform, requiring you to remove the contingency or cancel the Agreement. This cannot be presented before 48 hours prior to the end of our contingency period. You then have 48 hours to take action. Ideally we will have submitted a Request For Repairs and have some kind of response from the Seller before they submit any Notice to Perform.

CD+14-19 After some likely back and forth, if you are satisfied with the Seller’s response to your request, you sign and submit a Contingency Removal Form. After this, you cannot cancel the deal based on property condition unless some act of God, a fire or some event that alters the condition of the property occurs.

CD+17-30 End of loan contingency period. If your lender is satisfied with your application and the appraisal and there are no insurmountable pre-funding conditions, you are in a position to remove your loan and appraisal contingencies. You will sign and submit another Contingency Removal form. Again, once this is submitted, you cannot get out of the transaction based on the loan terms. Be prepared for lots of paperwork requests from the lender. As a preferred borrower, you may be spared, but not likely. By the end of the process, you feel like your lender knows more about you than your significant other and parents combined. It is this very process that is driving so many people to cash purchases.

CD+17-30 Escrow has ordered the City 9A report. They will send it to us for your approval. This will have the info on the city sewer permit, home permits and Certificates of Occupancy and various other things. It’s a simple report but a requirement that the Seller typically pays for and provides for your approval. This is usually the last contingency, so if all is well, you would sign and submit a Contingency Removal form, removing ALL Contingencies. At this time, your deposit money goes hard.

-At this point, you have to think about moving…. Please refer to the Moving Checklist in my Blog.

-Or, maybe you start to co-ordinate and book your contractors if you are doing any work to your home.

CD+21+ Your lender will contact escrow that loan documents are ready. Escrow will co-ordinate with you to come in and sign the documents. At this time they will also let you know the exact amount of money to wire for your closing costs and down payment. You will need to effect your wire so that it is in the escrow account at least one day before the close of escrow.

Closing-5: Seller to complete any agreed upon repairs (including termite work if that has been agreed to) and retrofitting. Seller also has to remove all personal property and trash and deliver the property to you in “broom clean” condition. They are not obligated to get a cleaning crew in, so if that is something you would like, we need to put that in our Request for Repairs.

Closing-5 -We conduct the final walk through to verify that all work has been done and that the property is being delivered in a similar condition as when you went into escrow. Seller has to maintain garden etc. during the escrow period.

-Set up utilities in your name

Closing-1 bus. day:

Your lender funds your loan and we set up to record the next day.

Closing Close of escrow: Title calls me with confirmation of recording, which mean we’ve CLOSED. While this sounds exciting, it’s sometimes a bit of a letdown after all the hard work you went through. There’s no fanfare, no sitting around a “closing table”. Just a phone call. So, you have to make a plan to celebrate!